Perfect nature

Time and space, to sit and think...

Of all the gifts I have strived to give my child, the most valuable I would say is time and space to think, to dream, to absorb, to be… Time to sit, reflect, see the beauty all around, learn the beauty that is within each of us, perfect beauty in an imperfect world.

Nature provides for us the perfect setting in her constant imperfections. Beauty breeds and grows from these imperfections. Silently and quietly we sit and listen. We hear the world around. We hear the world inside us. And we are allowed the opportunity to think, reflect, try to make sense of it all.

Sitting by a quiet stream, walking down a tree lined trail or hiking up top a mountain summit, even just taking a moment alone in a city park, the answers come to us. Sometimes, as a simple surprise. Look around. Listen. The answers are there. “Take more time,” the mountain tell us. “Keep on, keep on…” or “time to move on.” Is the wisdom in the wind that whips across the jagged peaks, or does being there teach us how to listen to the answers within? I have not figured this out yet. Perhaps I never will.

As we sit together on a peaceful evening in the high country, watching the sun settle across the valley before us, we talking quietly, staring ahead at the magnificence before us, sharing words yet alone in our own thoughts. I encourage him to find his goodness, strive to cultivate this goodness, to forgive oneself, and leave behind the faults of yesterday. Likewise, rather than finding the imperfection in others, we should work to perfect ourselves. It’s all we really can do, isn’t it? And this is hard enough. I know of no one yet perfect, and so much of myself that can be worked on. I remind him we are each works of art, works in progress, beautiful in our differences, our imperfections, like every mountain, valley, hill and stream.

Perhaps no more than a momentary perfection is possible. But we strive to find, to achieve, to be.

And in the world around us, the world of nature, we see life and death, day and night, summer and winter. Ever changing, ever recreating, always reminding us of infinite power and wisdom somehow far beyond our reach. And in these changes, these constant imperfections, we learn to understand that there is where perfection lies.